The Chair: How to control the panel discussion
- Paul Speirs
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
The Chair dictates the mood, the pace, the relevance and the central thread of a panel session or meeting. They are the architect of a session’s success as they steer the questions, dissect complex points, paraphrase for clarity and make high-level discussions seem effortless for the audience to follow.
And to top it off, they have the glory of the wrap up - drawing all the threads together into a tidy little bow.
And it’s a super hot-seat. Done brilliantly, you look like an absolute superstar. Done poorly, and you’re a forgotten spectator who drifted along barely as a footnote.
Get this... when a Chair checks-out, the entire session can disintegrate into chaos or boredom, which does no service to the panellists or the room. Classic traits of a poor panel session include:
The Hostage Situation - when a panellist hogs the mic, side-lining other speakers while the Chair sits back like a passive observer.
The Clipboard Crutch - the Chair frantically sticks to the pre-written questions ignoring ground-breaking revelations dropped right in front of them.
Audience Disconnect - The Chair fails to read the room as the audience slowly checks out to check out their phones under the table.
The Damp Squib - ending the session on a lame note leaving the audience with zero takeaways.
Brilliant Chairs Do This
There are many things that make a Brilliant Chair and here are three of the best!
Listen (Actively, Not Performatively)
Stop staring at your notes thinking about your next prompt. Listen to the subtext of what is actually being said. The best follow-up questions are born from real-time observation, not a pre-printed agenda.
Don’t Offer Your View - this is a proper pet peeve of mine!
The Chair is the lens, not the subject. Resist the urge to chime in with your own anecdotes or say, "I actually think..." Your job is to extract brilliance from others, not showcase your own opinions.
Have Your Wrap-Up Ready.
A great Chair arrives with a foundational framework in place, yet remains constantly synthesising as the discussion unfolds. Jot down 2–3 overarching themes along the way. When the clock hits zero, don't just stop the talking, summarise the key breakthroughs into a crisp, 60-second parting insight.
"The moderator should never be the star of the show... Your job isn't just to ask questions, it's to create a conversation worth having." Kristin Arnold, Professional Panel Moderator and Author of Powerful Panels
The Chair's Golden Thread
Aim: To train the Chair to actively listen for underlying connections in real-time and deliver a crisp, 10-second summary under pressure without rambling.
Outcome: Rapid Synthesis & The Wrap-Up. Eliminates panic-induced summaries and builds the mental muscle required to extract themes on the fly.
How it works:
Break into groups of 3 (Panellist A, Panellist B, The Chair). Panellist A speaks for 15 seconds on a random topic (e.g., "Why remote work is failing").
Panellist B immediately speaks for 15 seconds on a completely different topic (e.g., "Why baking sourdough takes discipline").
The Chair has 5 seconds of silence to think, then must deliver a one or two sentence wrap-up that logically (or creatively) connects both points for the audience.
